Aqua-Soft ForumsNew Photo Management Website
I see exactly what you mean, and that (as you say) shouldn't be too hard to implement - Simply a case of writing a PHP/SQL script to grab certain images based on certain criteria. Good idea - That will be something that is definitely included 
Does anyone else have any suggestions? - I really appreciate all these ideas, they should really help to make this project a sucess.
One thing I haven't really seen implimented before is a gallery.....
... no I havent gone mad.. I mean where the site has an area where the best photos of the week/month are presented in a seperate area. People can submit their best pics, have competitions and vote (i.e. best b/w nature pic) and the winner could have their picture printed.. or something like that.
I just get the vibe you want the site to be about photography/art as well as somewhere to stick your photos.
-Allow hotlinking (for shared images)
-Upload from email (attachments)
-Price should be charge per year (my own opinion based on other image hosting I stumble upon)
Nice design, luv it
mebe you should have like 2.99/month, but if you buy a year, instead of 35.78 you could only pay 29.99 
First of all, I love the site design. It's very clean, organized and professional.
Secondly though, what in the world is up with ZoneNetworks hosting plans?
Has your company even researched other web hosting companies prices? Their enterprise plan is £13.99 per month (26.66USD), and only gives you 4.0gb of bandwidth. 4gigs? That's nothing in terms of hosting anymore. Most sites have a basic package that will start at 5gigs.
I currently pay $7.50 USD a month for my hosting. I'm given 40 (yes FORTY)gigs worth of hosting, UNLIMITED disk space, free domain name, free setup, SSL, unlimited subdomains, parked domains, mailing lists, autoresponders, e-mail accounts, cron jobs and MySQL databases. I also have Fantastico with over 50 installable scripts, as well as up-to-date Perl, PHP, SSI, Python, and MySQL. I also have access to raw logs as well as two built-in stat systems and site backups available as well. Oh and it's all Linux hosting too
For those interested check out http://www.simplehost.com
I'm not trying to bad mouth ZoneNetworks but for price/feature wise it doesn't seem right. Bandwidth is the major issue. It's way too easy to toast 4gigs of bandwidth in a month, let alone 1gig in a month.
Thanks for all the comments guys. I like the communal competition/gallery idea - Sounds like a good plan.
I expect that all the photo plans will be charged yearly - it cuts down on administration, and just makes the process easier. Although we could implement some type of discount system for regular uploaders, or competition winners.....
OK - Although this thread doesn't have a specific relation to Zone Network, I'll try to answer a couple of your comments Flyakite.
First of all, I love the site design. It's very clean, organized and professional.
Thanks
Secondly though, what in the world is up with ZoneNetworks hosting plans?Has your company even researched other web hosting companies prices? Their enterprise plan is £13.99 per month (26.66USD), and only gives you 4.0gb of bandwidth. 4gigs? That's nothing in terms of hosting anymore. Most sites have a basic package that will start at 5gigs.
I agree that when looking at other hosting plans, our bandwidth may seem a little stingy. We are planning on updating this soon, but please bear in mind that we do not over-sell bandwidth like many companies - if everyone used their bandwidth limit to maximum, it would not cause any server problems.
I currently pay $7.50 USD a month for my hosting. I'm given 40 (yes FORTY)gigs worth of hosting, UNLIMITED disk space, free domain name, free setup, SSL, unlimited subdomains, parked domains, mailing lists, autoresponders, e-mail accounts, cron jobs and MySQL databases. I also have Fantastico with over 50 installable scripts, as well as up-to-date Perl, PHP, SSI, Python, and MySQL. I also have access to raw logs as well as two built-in stat systems and site backups available as well. Oh and it's all Linux hosting too
That sounds like a great package you have. Although we could try to rival a system such as that, it would mean that we would have to invest much more time and money marketing the service to keep it profitable. We go for a personal service, with great technical support.
Don't get me wrong though! - We aren't far off your hosting package. We can offer large amounts of diskspace, SSL, subdomains, mailing lists, autoresponders, e-mail accounts, cron jobs and MySQL databases. We have our own software system (similar to Fantastico), up-to-date ASP, Perl, PHP, SSI, and MySQL. We offer raw logs, a statistics system and site backups. The only reason our equivalent expensive may be slightly more expensive is to enable us to offer a great quality of service.
For those interested check out http://www.simplehost.comI'm not trying to bad mouth ZoneNetworks but for price/feature wise it doesn't seem right. Bandwidth is the major issue. It's way too easy to toast 4gigs of bandwidth in a month, let alone 1gig in a month.
I completely understand, and thanks for the comments. We are making some changes at the moment, and will keep everyone here informed with progress in that area.
But, let's not make this a topic about Zone Network - If anyone wants to discuss this further, please start a new one. Does anyone have any more suggestions for iSnaps.co.uk? - I really appreciate your comments so far.
I have 1GB/50GB for only about six bux a month... eleven2.com, very nice host.
It depends on what you want a host to be, some hosts are better for flash users b/c they need to have a lot of transfer, but not as much disk space.
Can I reiterate what I just said pwn -
"But, let's not make this a topic about Zone Network - If anyone wants to discuss this further, please start a new one."
How are we going to be able to upload our images? Will it be limited to web interface or will there be the option to have ftp - which would be useful for larger amounts of images.
Hmm - That's a good point. There would be certain complications with being able to upload via FTP (for example, it would be much harder to link an image to an entry in a database). I think, realistically, a web based interface will be the way we have to go. However, it would be implemented to allow you to upload several images at a time...
What do other people think?
I like the idea of e-mailing pics to the site. And yes, a web interface with multiple uploads possible is a must-have.
mebe a konfab widget specially made so you can drop images on it and upload it to iSnaps?
Both great ideas! - Emailing to the site should certainly be feasable - I might need some help programming a konfab/ave widget but it sounds possible
You could even link the widget in to show pic of the day/week or make the user able to enter their username and show their own pics, clicking on it opens the site, dragging an image onto it uploads it.
not that complicated dd 
.... oops I forgot to mention when you drag the image, it also converts it and sends it to your mobile, then sends all your contacts an email to say you've a new picture online....
Actually that gives me an idea: could you have watch folders like at DeviantArt - so if someone uploads a new pic you get notification.
I'd see no problem with that. These are some great ideas, really great. Thanks so much for all the input
Could I ask what you would say an average size for a photo is? - I'd say around 1 meg but people may disagree... just need to know for pricing up the iSnaps pricing scheme...
Depending on the type of user you have, your target market, you will have different averages. But i think a 1 meg average is a fair compromise
You have to think of the balance of image quality over upload time - people on 56k modems will concider 1meg pictures (especially if they have more than one) huge. Others of us more fortunate on BroadBand concider 1meg to be nothing.
I had a check though my photos from digital camera and a medium res (1600x1200) image was averaging around 1.3 meg - but I know that a 85% optimised jpeg would drop it down to around 900k, I know this may not be much, but if the hosting is based on set disk space this will be benefical.
So to conclude - I would say 1 meg is a nice clean figure to use.
Thanks for the input - I'll base the image estimates on those figures. Here are the final values for the pricing scheme:
Free - 40 Images - 40mb
£2.50/month - 800 Images - 800mb
£5.00/month - 1600 Images - 1600mb
£10.00/month - 4000 Images - 4000mb
I'm aware that the free package doesn't exactly allow for a huge number of hosted images, but this is simply because of the number of free accounts I am expecting to recieve signups from. I can't really afford to provide huge amounts of diskspace to those not paying anything. Do you think these are reasonable?
Sounds pretty good to me.
I would also include something in the terms and conditions that if not used for 6 months all images in the user account will be deleted and the account removed.
Those costings seem pretty good, although the 800/1600 prices seem a little wrong, as I could sign up for 2 accounts on the 800 price and save myself £1 per month.
Those don't look bad-- I know I'll be signing up for a free account (sorry to take advantage, but IMO that's actually a very good offer, especially if you want screenshot+ a few other photo's hosting.
Thanks for offering a free service!
-NC